How I Produce a Deep House Track

Greetings to all! It's been a while since I posted anything here. I had been busy with life, like most people. You know we tend to lose focus on things, when other things distract us, so that's just how it goes.

I see my last post here was my iPod unboxing, while I was still an Apple noob lol! It's been way surpassed already, cuz now I already got most Apple Products. I still would like to get a MacPro and Cinema display though, IF a decent MacPro will ever be released again. I'm also eagerly waiting for the rumored Apple Television. So yep! I'm an absolute Apple fan girl!

Anyways according to my stats, the most searched and read post from this blog is the tutorial on how to produce a deep house track. Looks like there are many out there, who are exploring the world of music production, especially regarding Deep House.

But since the supposed to be tutorial was written for the sake of laughs, well for those who share the same sense of humor. It wasn't supposed to be taken seriously (though many things I said were kinda true, talkin' bout pure sarcasm), I thought of showing you how I actually produce a Deep House track.

I don't really produce deep house tracks, cuz I mainly do jazz, soul and rnb songs. But I have worked with a couple of good Deep House producers in the past. I also like listening to deep house music now and then, especially when I'm working on graphics or when I need to be fully concentrated (as explained on my other post).

I made a video just to give you an idea. It isn't supposed to be a tutorial and it's also not meant for absolute beginners. This video is also available on my Vimeo channel, for a better watching experience, since the streaming and video quality is better (though Youtube also offers HD, the streaming has been really bad lately, like stop and go).

If you have any questions, just write a comment. You can also subscribe to my Youtube channel, since I will be posting more vids in the future.

Tutorial - How To Produce A Deep House Track

I mostly listen to Deep House music every time I work intensively with graphics, cuz I try to avoid being sidetracked. Why? Let me explain. If I listen to any "real music" or let's say anything that has a complete composition including lyrics and all that jazz, there's the danger of me getting side-tracked because:

• I might sing-along, if I know the song, but then I have to recall the lyrics (how did it go again? hmm)
• I might start to think about the meaning or message of the song, especially if the lyrics are deep or intellectual
• It might remind me of something pleasant or unpleasant (later is of course worse)
• I might start recognizing certain chords, samples, loops I already heard before. Then I'd start to find out, from which original track the stolen tune was
• I might start analyzing how they did the arrangement, well I tend to separate each instrument when I listen to a track

Those are just some of the reasons, why I prefer to listen to Deep House music, when I'm working on something and need to concentrate.

Deep House or house music in general are monotone. If you're not familiar with it, you will first get the impression that the same beat and loop sample is playing for more than half an hour. But the fact is, it's probably only 20min. or less. But anyway, while listening to Deep House for hours, working on stuff, I notice that they mostly consist of the same pattern.

So I had the idea of writing a tutorial on how to produce a Deep House track. This is going to be useful, especially for "producers" out there, who got all the tight ass, expensive gear and studio equipments, but unfortunately couldn't produce a decent track, due to lack of creativity and talent.

Here's how you do it step by step:

• Open your DAW, whatever you're using.
• Open a new template - rename it to whatever name you want
• Set your BPM to 120
• Find a cool bassline, a deep one. Better with a moog or something similar. Attention - the chords need to be the same ones used for the rhodes (see rhodes)!
• Loop it for a duration of 5min. (that's the length of your track)
• Find a complete drum beat that fits well, if you can't find anything, then you need to create it yourself. But I guess you wouldn't want to do that, since that would require some skills, that you don't have (or you wouldn't be wasting your time reading this). Loop it for 5min.
• Now this is where the "deep" in house comes in (Warning - teeny bitty skills required!) - open your rhodes instrument and choose the sound you want. Play a random set of 4 chords. Let's say C-D-G-F or something like that. But you need to play it like C and D and G G G F or C C C D G and F or whatever fits your mood. Loop it for 5 min.
• Time for some vocals - this you can do by yourself. Say a meaningless sentence like, "Get your ass on the dance floor", or "Time to get down everybody" or just talk about what you did the whole day, like you went to the store to get some groceries etc.

Now if you can speak other languages like French or Spanish, it would even sound more meaningful. Remember to speak in a low and sexy voice (no mickey mouse sound alike!). If you are more sophisticated when it comes to lyrics, you can also say something deeper or anything that would give the impression, that it's intellectual like "trees are dying what's goin' on with this world?" or "I don't see people on the dancefloor, what's the sense of life?".

Warning! Avoid being too meaningful with your words or see above regarding me being sidetracked. Other variation for more advanced no-skill "producers" (see below). Remember that people don't wan't to think, when they listen to house in general, especially if they took, snorted or smoked something. Loop it for 5 min.

• Wow, your track is almost done! But we need to make it a bit more interesting. Throw in some ahhs und oohs or any random human sound (Please no burps or farts! That's very uncool! And if you still use them, apply lots of filters and effects so no one would recognize!) every 16 bars, to spice it up. You can also apply some filters or effects on some of your vocals for the break part, to give it a variety.
• For the break part, just turn off the drum beat for 8 bars and add more filters and effects to your vocals. Attention - avoid the break to be more "bridge part" alike (like using a different set of chords) or there's danger in losing monotony!
• You're basically done with your track. Control all output levels and eliminate clippings. Tweak and fine tune your sound if necessary. Use presets, if you have no idea how to mix the sound. Bounce or convert your finished track to a wav or mp3 file. Congratulations!

You can also apply the same method for regular House tracks, just replace the rhodes (it's what defines the "deep" in deep house) with any random instrument. Common instruments used for regular house tracks are anything that sounds synthetic.

For advanced no-skill tune makers:

• If non-sense talking for the vocals is too ordinary for you, you can replace it with non-sense singing instead. Now if you can't do the job yourself, you need to hire a singer for that. It doesn't really matter if the singer can sing (as heard by many examples, with lots of them singing off-key), you can also use "Auto-Tune" if necessary. You can also combine non-sense talking with non-sense singing.
• Another possibility is to hire a piano bar dude, to play any random free-style wank tunes (like ad-libing for half an hour) on the whole track. This will give it an even more jazzy feel to it. Same applies for saxophone (hire the dude playing at the street corner etc.). You can also combine this with non-sense talking or random human sounds. Warning -- combining this with non-sense singing will not work, since it might result to heavy ear strain and vomit attack!
• Don't loop them continuously.

If the above tutorial is still too difficult for you, purchase a contruction kit instead and just create your tune out of the contruction kit.

Enjoy and I wish you a lot of success and lots of record sales. Don't forget to give me 70% out of net revenue!

Disclaimer:
The above tutorial was written with pure sarcasm and should be understood by people with a certain degree of sense of humor. If you felt offended in any way when reading this tutorial -- go sell all your equipments dude, you're totally hopeless!!

Album Work: The Documentation - Part 2

Here I am finally proceeding with my album work and all I can say is... it's a hell lot of work! I'm in the process of premastering my songs, which is the procedure I despise the most...mixing! OMFG! My hand hurts from thousands of mouse clicks. Anyone who also produces tracks with vocals, can definitely relate to what I'm going through.

Imagine how it is to hear EACH verse of EACH song more than a hundred times yo! You'll go nuts, after 5 hours lol! I tell yah, this is definitely a blood, sweat and tears project, and I don't mean the band lol! Editing more than 40 tracks in a song and most are the vocal tracks... man it's really difficult to stay focused. I can't listen to my voice anymore!

I basically do a lot of vocal tracks in my songs because I love harmonies in my backing vocals. So it's mainly like 4 of each harmony (2 left, 2 right) for stereo sound. I mostly got 3 harmonies - mid, high and low. Then some other backings, then some adlibs, then some effects, then the main vocals and so on. So aside from mixin' the instrumental, mixin' the vocals is another pain in the ass. It's definitely easier to produce an instrumental track.

But it's all for myself right? That's why I just accept the painful procedure lol! I'm doin' this for the love and passion for my music. I guess without that, I just would keep all tracks I produced so far in the closet until they are forgotten, like most people I have collaborated with in the past. Lots of great tracks have been produced, but where are they? Oh in the closet, ok. So it's great that at least there's one listener to the tracks... the closet! What's the sense? What a waste of time. I can't even count all the collaborations I already had, which were only a learning experience in the end. Well that's how I re-word "a waste of time" - a learning experience lol!

As I have mentioned, I'm premastering all of those 16 tracks right now. After that, I will have to mix them together to get one mix level for the whole album. The danger I see is, being me, I always like to change this and that especially the vocal recording, even if the takes were already good. I just need to control myself with that or I won't be able to proceed.

So far, most of the songs I have chosen, since my Album Work: Documentation - Part 1, still convinced me and I added a few more songs to the album. All in all there are 16 songs including intro and interludes, but I still won't post the track listing yet. I'll do that on part 3, which should be the final phase, well hopefully, if all works well.

But it seriously is a lot of work right now, especially since I realized that I did a somehow lousy work in the past lol! For example, some of the beats I created had both snares and kicks in the same tracks or even the bass drum, and that makes the mixing process more difficult, cuz you have to be able control each track, thus each sound to make it easier to avoid clippings etc.

Can you imagine how much work it is to mix down 1 track? Now I'm doin' 16 tracks, so I don't even want to think about it. So far, I've managed to do another round of premixes and they all sounded pretty good to me, regarding the output level BUT, now comes the butt I mean but, when I finally could change the defective cable of my HD 25 headphones, I heard some clippings.. oh shit! What does that mean? Yep, I can start the premixes again...damn!

I mix the sound through my speakers of course, but I still listen to them through my headphones. Now I use 2 different types, one is the AKG K271, which has lesser bass (this is also the one I use when recording vocals), then the other one is the Sennheiser HD25, which has a lot of bass. Now the cable broke somehow, so I had to replace it and when I finally had it, the bass sound was too much and the level output was kinda distorted on some parts.

That's the reason why I wanted to listen to my tracks by using the HD25, so I can control the bass and drum sounds. I see it like this, the lesser bass you hear with whatever you're using for the mix, the more volume you tend to apply. Anyway, I need to fix them soon, but that's what get's me bored. No creative process in there. Just technical, so I get sidetracked again, by producing new tracks instead lol! I hate myself like this! Self-discipline baby... self-discipline.

So where's the fun? When am I gonna have fun? All I do is work. I can't even remember the last time I had fun, just for the sake of having fun. Oh yeah, I went to a club with my friends weeks ago and I realized again that it's not fun at all.

I guess my club days are over. I used to go to clubs 3 times a week at least, sometimes without having sleep. Later on, it was mostly a business matter, when I went to clubs, like talking to the club managers or owners about gigs or performing or socializing/networking or to see and be seen. Maybe I just had enough of the same shit. Guys trying to act cool, girls acting like sluts, especially when they get drunk. Drunk women are not really a good sight at all.

That's why I avoid getting drunk in public places, cuz I don't want to embarrass myself, or lose control of my brain. I despise losing control. Another reason why I'm not fond of taking drugs, I never was. I tried but I didn't find anything special about it, so drugs were never my thing. I would definitely hate to feel paralyzed, like not being able to control myself anymore and acting retarded... no way.

I'm a lady in the street and a (insert word here) in the bed lol! Nuff said, I need to proceed with my album production! Lord help me!

Part 3 to come so stay tuned!

Yours
Can'Tell

Album Work: The Documentation - Part 1

Well, I thought it might be interesting to write down, how my album work during the process comes along. As to inform you, I'm doin' it all by myself, so the procedure is 10 or more times difficult, and the time frame even longer than usual.

I haven't also mentioned yet, that I am planning to release it all by myself too.. tough huh? But let me talk about that later, when I'm done with the album, cuz I've learned to do things step by step, meaning one at a time (I use to do a lot of things at the same time).

Now I'm pretty sure you would think first, that it's impossible... really? Well that exactly IS the challenge for me. I'm not informed if anyone have done anything like this yet, I mean really doing everything - ALONE.

So mainly, I am playing how many roles? Let's see... producer, songwriter/composer, singer, back-up singer, arranger, album director, pre-master engineer, coffee maker and so on...

The Pros:

- I don't need to ask or wait for anyone or anything
- I don't have to depend on anyone
- I don't have anyone rushin' on me or pressuring me
- Total control
- I have all the rights, thus points
- I have all the creative freedom
- It's only me, I have to blame if things turn out bad
- I'm sure none of the songs would "leak" before the release
- I don't have to deal with any guys who would want something else from me, aside from working with me
- I don't have to trust anyone, believing our collaboration would always be in good terms
- I don't have to make the effort of motivating anyone, just to be able to proceed
- I don't have to pay anyone or get charged for studio time (except for the final master of course)
- No one bugging me / stressing me out

The Cons:

- Phases of "creativity at zero point"
- No input during the procedure/no other ears who could hear out some fine tunings
- I have to come up with all the costs
- Working a 9-5 job to cover up all the costs
- Less time for music because of the 9-5 job
- Constant self-motivation
- Procedure takes much longer than usual
- Constant learning by doing
- Isolation (you can bet your ass that I will NEVER answer the phone when I'm busy working on a track, even if you're the king of Timbuktu or whoever..)
- No time for other things in life

Phase 1

I started working on my debut album since... hmm let me think... 2005. Since I have just started producing in 2003, I first produced/composed/wrote several songs starting that time. I was very obsessed. This obsession led me into producing around more or less, 40 tracks (collaborations not counted). But I have to experience, that choosing the tracks for the album is one of the most difficult tasks, cuz it's suppose to be a concept album. The first tracks I have chosen by the end of 2004, didn't convince me anymore later on.

Being in the situation of learning and getting better through each track I produce (especially the mixing, which kills me at times), the euphoria I had when working on several tracks, wasn't the same anymore when I listened to them later.

When I produce a track, I already get the feel for it, if it's an album track or an "internet" track (check tracks on www.cantell-music.com and www.myspace.com). The internet tracks are mostly the ones I produce on the side, just to deflect me from the tracks I'm seriously workin' on. That's why I vary the styles I do, to avoid a "sound a like" of tracks.

I still have to distance myself a lot from my tracks now and then, to get a more objective opinion, when working on them, cuz there are no other ears listening to them, aside from mines. Well of course I got friends. Now when I say "friends", I mean people I would trust with my life, so associates aren't counted. But I don't count on my friends' opinions regarding my music, cuz they have no idea about the type of music I'm doin'.

First of all, they are much older than me (learn from the wise, I say), cuz I can't/don't hang out much with younger people or even people at my age (too exhausting). Secondly, if I want some opinion about the tracks I produce mainly soulmusic, then I have to ask someone, who is also a soulmusic consumer as well. And that's another thing, cuz I don't mean mainstream music (R&B Pop), or the shit you hear on the radio on heavy rotation. My music is not meant for the mainstream, so I don't mind if mainstream consumers wouldn't like it - I will be honored if that would be the case.

At this moment, I have chosen 12 songs plus a bonus hidden track. Now I won't be exposing the tracklisting yet, cuz I'm sure it will still change later on. I actually was having some difficulties to start off with the track order, cuz I wanted to start off with an intro and to create some interludes in between. Well I'm not very skilled in creating intros yet, but when I finally had the intro and interludes, I got my motivation back and started with the track order.

Since then, I've been workin' on each track, changing this and that, arranging the instruments, recording some vocals over again, if I didn't like certain takes. I'd be doin' some rough mixes, be downloading them to my mp3 player, to listen to the sound and to check all other aspects regarding the arrangement, mix, instruments, vocals etc. Then I do a check list and go over it again. It really is a hell lot of work and I sometimes can't listen to my songs or even my voice anymore. The tracks are somehow already "old" for me, like "oh the oldies! Man I felt this and that when I used to listen to this and that song!" LOL!

Sometimes I even change a whole track completely - the vibe, bpm, beat, the feel and even the vocal melody. That's when I come up with remixes of my own stuff. Like I'll do a jazz version of a soul track etc. I know I'm crazy... it's hard to understand what's goin' on in my head sometimes. But one of my weaknesses is that, I can get so easily bored with anything. That's why, a track has to fully catch me somehow, to get me goin' on with it. So far, each track I've chosen kinda got its own "personality", so I really would be so eager to know, how people would like the album later on.

My debut album will be a personal one, as it usually is for each artist. It would be a kind of introduction of "who the fuck Can'Tell is". A sad album though I think... but hopefully not cheesy, cuz I'm avoiding that by all means. LOL!

More to come... so stay tuned!

Yours truly,
Can'Tell